I liked the Internet more when you had to use sendmail to actually send an email and only nerds and academics used the thing. The latest, shiny, Internet thing has caused grown ass people to question their hearing trying to discern the words “Yanny” and “Laurel” from a fuzzy audio recording. I can implement this stuff, but don’t understand the allure.

Definitely not, Laurel

I talk about Yanny (not to be confused with Yoni), ZTE, and cable this week on First News 570 with Mark Starling. Make sure you listen in every Thursday morning.

TEENAGERS CAUSE GROWN ASS PEOPLE TO QUESTION THEIR HEARING
For the record, the word that was spoken is “Laurel”. Unless you have better things to do, or live under a rock, you may have noticed that many usually rational people fell into another Internet trap of listening to a poorly recorded word and determining if the spoken word was “Laurel” or “Yanny”. Not to be confused with Yanni. And yes, I heard the word spoken as Laurel. People I respect and thought were “alright” claimed that they heard “Yanny”, when in actuality, Vocabulary.com said that they hired an opera singer to speak the word Laurel for its records. The Internet has a penchant for new and shiny things, what makes this worse than the dress is that a whole bunch of adults wasted time on a sensation started by some high school kids. I hate the Internet.Read more

ZTE BANNED FROM SELLING PHONES IN US, BECAUSE THEY CAN’T STOP SELLING TO BAD GUYS
In really serious technology news, Chinese smartphone manufacturer ZTE has been banned from selling its phones in the US. ZTE was one of the top sellers of smartphones in America behind Apple, Samsung, and LG. A couple of years ago, ZTE was fined $1.2 BILLION, Billion with a ‘B’ for selling phones powered by US made telecommunications chips from Qualcomm to bad guys. ZTE was found to have been selling their phones to Syria and other known aggressors. Well, ZTE didn’t stop selling the phones, and has now been banned for 7 years. On this news, ZTE closed its doors in the US and the President has decided to dedicate his time to helping ZTE be able to sell phones in the US again. We’re in a weird state of affairs, especially given the fact that the US and China are in the middle of a serious trade negotiation with trillions potentially on the line. We’ll see what happens.Read more

IN SIGN OF THE TIMES, APPLE TV REPLACES CABLE BOX IN FRANCE
Canal+, a French cable TV provider is ditching its own cable TV box and is choosing to send its subscribers Apple TVs. Canal+ has 5 million subscribers and will now be providing its service via an app called myCanal. Canal+ will be leasing the ATV to its subscribers at 6 euro a month. For subscribers who want to stay with satellite service instead of cable, they’ll stick with their existing box. Other cable TV providers are considering the idea of using an app supported box. Comcast is experimenting with deploying Roku to its customers instead of its comcastic Xfinity box. I think app boxes are a compelling alternative to bulky cable boxes as multipurpose devices. I hope the trend catches on.Read more

SENATE SYMBOLICALLY VOTES TO RETAIN NET NEUTRALITY WHILE THE HOUSE YAWNS
Yesterday, the Senate voted 52/47 to retain Net Neutrality rules adopting an open Internet that ISPs can charge throttling fees. The Democratic party used a law that allows Congress to reverse regulatory actions by a simple majority vote. The effort was purely political as the Trump administration has signaled that it will not reverse Net Neutrality and the House of Representatives has shown little interest in taking up a vote. Net Neutrality is supposed to make the Internet and open and free flowing information system. But if more people use this precious bandwidth to figure out if they are hearing Yanny or Laurel, then they need to be throttled.Read more

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